Lead Data Architect

The Lead Data Architect will establish and evolve the overarching data architecture while ensuring that pipelines, integrations, data products, external sharing mechanisms, and AI/ML data services remain scalable, secure, maintainable, and aligned with FEMA’s enterprise architecture., * Lead the design and evolution of FEMA’s enterprise data architecture.

• Design enterprise-wide cloud data platforms and scalable data-processing architectures.
• Develop and govern Medallion/Lakehouse architecture patterns.
• Design and oversee metadata-driven ingestion frameworks.
• Design scalable real-time and streaming architectures.
• Establish architectural patterns supporting growth in data sources, data volume, velocity, concurrency, and users.
• Ensure new pipelines, integrations, and data products conform to FEMA’s architecture standards.
• Define reusable architecture and integration patterns rather than one-off implementations.
• Oversee end-to-end data lineage from source systems through curated data layers and downstream consumption.
• Support technical implementation of FEMA data governance requirements, including:
• Metadata management
• Data classification and tagging
• Cataloging
• Fine-grained access controls
• Data lineage and provenance
• Develop architecture supporting secure external data exchange and ingestion.
• Architect data services supporting AI/ML workloads, including feature pipelines, curated datasets, embedding/vector stores, and retrieval pipelines as required.
• Support platform capacity planning, performance engineering, elastic scaling, workload isolation, and cost optimization.
• Troubleshoot complex enterprise pipeline and architecture issues.
• Provide architecture guidance and technical leadership to engineering teams and Government stakeholders.
• Maintain architecture documentation sufficient for Government personnel or successor contractors to operate and extend the platform.

• Extensive experience designing enterprise-scale cloud data platforms and architectures.
• Demonstrated experience with Databricks Lakehouse or comparable enterprise cloud data platforms.
• Strong hands-on knowledge of Medallion architecture.
• Demonstrated expertise designing metadata-driven ingestion frameworks.
• Demonstrated expertise designing scalable real-time streaming topologies.
• Experience designing data architectures within Federal cloud or similarly regulated environments.
• Strong understanding of enterprise data integration, data modeling, lineage, metadata management, governance, and access controls.
• Experience designing architectures supporting high-volume batch and streaming workloads.
• Ability to troubleshoot complex data pipeline and architecture failures.
• Experience establishing reusable enterprise architecture patterns and technical standards.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate architecture decisions to both technical teams and Government leadership.

Highly Desired Technical Experience

• Databricks
• Apache Spark
• Delta Lake
• Python / PySpark
• SQL
• Lakehouse / Medallion architecture
• Structured Streaming or comparable streaming frameworks
• Cloud-native data services
• Data catalogs and lineage
• API and data-exchange architectures
• CI/CD and DevSecOps
• Data security and fine-grained access control
• FinOps and cloud architecture optimization
• AI/ML data architectures
• Vector databases / embedding stores / RAG architectures, * FEMA or DHS experience.
• Experience architecting enterprise Federal data modernization programs.
• Experience integrating large numbers of heterogeneous modern and legacy source systems.
• Experience designing secure external data-sharing architectures.
• Experience designing governed data foundations supporting AI/ML applications.
• Knowledge of NIST, FISMA, FedRAMP, DHS 4300A, and Federal data/privacy requirements.
• Databricks architecture or engineering certifications.

Clearance Requirements

• U.S. Citizenship.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain the Government-required suitability/fitness determination and IT access authorization.

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience and clearance level.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• 401(k) with company contribution.
• Paid time off and eleven federal holidays.
• Certification reimbursement and training
• Life and disability insurance.

SHR Consulting Group, LLC is a small business delivering enterprise IT, cybersecurity, and program management services to the Department of Defense and federal civilian agencies. We support mission-critical infrastructure at the Pentagon and across the National Capital Region, and we invest in our people through competitive compensation, professional certification support, and long-term career growth on stable, multi-year programs.